Tick test kit

do you test the tick or your blood?

Thanks Kat.

Jerry – you test the tick, using a fairly entertaining, multi-step process that includes mashing the tick with a wooden stick, and reading results on another pregnancy-test style stick:

Made in Holland:

http://www.careplus.eu/en/first-aid/tick-test/care-plus-tick-test-lyme-borreliose/

— Rex

$15 per tick could add up : )

Less than a co-pay.

Thinking carefully about this test, and how to use it:

• Tick tests negative. Yay, you (probably) won’t get a Borellia sp. disease (like Lyme)
• Tick tests positive. Boo, you might get Lyme, or you might not. Not all bites from infected ticks result in infections. Maybe time for a careful discussion with your doctor.

Note the “probably,” “might,” and “maybe.” We don’t have two important pieces of information about this test:

• How often does it give false positives — says Borellia present, but really not?
• How often does it give false negatives — says no Borellia, but it’s really there?

From the Care Plus web site:

“This (self-) diagnosis test provides a 92.99% reliable result within 20-30 minutes.”

“92.99% reliable” is pretty hard to interpret.

Similar statements found elsehwere:

“A (2011) clinical study of the Care Plus Tick Test found it performed with 95.8% clinical accuracy. Clinical results (2011) found the clinical accuracy of the Care PlusTM Tick Test is (95.8%) when it comes to being able to effectively test for the presence of Borrelia burgdorferi, Borrelia garinii and Borrelia afzelii. A similar test in 2009 on 500 ticks found a comparable result (95.3%) clinical accuracy.”

Note the numeric discrepancies. Also, the references cited are unpublished reports by the manufacturer.

Found only one review of this product on Amazon UK, not very helpful. Strange that it’s been around since at least 2009, and nobody’s said much.

It’s only recently been approved for sale in Canada, and that’s muddy:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/tick-test-lyme-disease-1.3584327

Can’t find any US retailers.

Caveat emptor.

— Rex

as someone living in the northeast, a few hours drive from the town where lyme was first found, i was under the impression that it was still fairly rare on the west coast. is that wrong?

good thought process Rex

yeah, it’s fairly rare, especially compared to the Northeast

https://www.cdc.gov/lyme/stats/tables.html

maybe 1% as many cases as in the Northeast

Here on the central coast last year the sampling showed that 15% of deer ticks carried the disease. Not that rare.

that’s interesting/unfortunate.

anecdotally, are you aware of many people contracting lyme (or its relatives) in california?

I found out I had Lyme’s two years ago. After three rounds of treatment I finally tested negative four months ago. Last month I had the third tick of the year embedded in me but since I am now allergic to the saliva I know I have one within minutes and get it out. I brought two in for testing and one was positive for Borellia.

I have a neighbor one mountain over that also got lymes.

At work we have regular training with the county workers that collect and test the ticks and last year close to 15% of deer tick nymphs they tested were positive.

Rex is right.  As a screening test ideally you want to know it’s sensitivity and its specificity before you can know if it’s worth the money.  Or, as he put it, the false-positive and false-negative rate.

It’s hard to know what’s right for a test like this, though.  It isn’t like a PSA, where you’re trying to screen essentially every male, so as a screening test it sucks.  It’s only screening people at risk- i.e. who have removed a tick.  So what are acceptable rates?  I guess ideally you want a very low false-negative rate, but could accept some false-positives.  (Because then you just go to your doc and get an ELISA or something to show that the test was wrong.)

According to TickEncounter.org: “We stand behind the statement that it generally takes longer than 24 hrs of attachment before blacklegged ticks can transmit an infectious dose of the Lyme disease and human babesiosis agents.”

So testing would only recommended if the tick is attached for over 24 hours.

On my last trip one of the little buggers bored into my stomach:

I don’t think it had been there 24 hours, probably did it over night.  Pulled it out with tweezers.  It’s kind of like a fish hook.  I couldn’t get out a little of it’s mouth end.  So far no symptoms.  There was an inflamation rash for about 12 hours, but no bulls eye pattern.  No fever or fatigue or anything.  I guess I’ll survive.  CDC says to not worry about it in this case.

Guidelines are just that, guidelines. I will test mine way before the 24 hours. I never had one in that long and still got the virus.

There are diseases we are just learning about that are transmitted by ticks. They are nasty little effers.

I’ve been hearing and reading quite a bit over the last year about the rapid spread of Lyme disease-bearing ticks being linked to loss of small mammal predators, habitat, and biodiversity.  They argue that rodents thrive in degraded habitats whereas their predators typically do not.  As rodent populations explode, so do the disease-bearing tick populations.  I understand it’s spreading westward pretty rapidly and really blowing up in a few key western areas right now.  An article I was reading the other day was speculating that we’re likely going to see an explosion of the disease in the coming decade.

I’ve read similar

if you have an isolated house with small acreage of forest, that’s good habitat for mice but not predators, so there are more mice and more ticks and more Lyme disease

you’re more likely to get ticks and Lyme disease in your yard than when you go out hiking in the wilderness

A mechanical engineer I work with acquired Lyme disease about three years ago, while hiking along the coast in San Diego County.  He found the tick about two days later, pulled it off and didn’t think about it again until almost 60 days later at which point he was at stage 3, swelling of and pain at almost all his joints.  The joint pain was so severe he missed the next two years of work, came back for two months, and then went on leave again and hasn’t been back since.  Very painful, he told me in was bed ridden most the first year.

Please note that the Bull’s Eye rash is common in most cases, but not all.

After seeing what my co-worker went through, I’ve been diligent about spraying all my clothing, both inside and outside with Permethrin. Lyme disease is something I don’t want to acquire.

What most worries me is the nymph stage, where the ticks are pin-head size.  Very difficult to spot, especially after hiking for a couple of days in a dusty environment. I wonder how well the test does on very small specimens.

only adults can bite you and transmit disease?

I wonder if there were symptoms he missed in those 60 days.  There’s the bulls eye rash, but also fever, headache, joint swelling, one side of the face droops

I’ve read that if you treat it earlier it takes less time to cure and there are fewer symptoms

Per the CDC:
Most humans are infected through the bites of immature ticks called nymphs. Nymphs are tiny (less than 2 mm) and difficult to see; they feed during the spring and summer months. Adult ticks can also transmit Lyme disease bacteria, but they are much larger and are more likely to be discovered and removed before they have had time to transmit the bacteria. Adult Ixodes ticks are most active during the cooler months of the year.

Also per the CDC, symptoms: 
<h2>Early Signs and Symptoms (3 to 30 days after tick bite)</h2>
<ul class=”list-bullet”>

• Fever, chills, headache, fatigue, muscle and joint aches, and swollen lymph nodes
• Erythema migrans (EM) rash:
  <ul class=”list-bullet”>
• Occurs in approximately 70 to 80 percent of infected persons
• Begins at the site of a tick bite after a delay of 3 to 30 days (average is about 7 days)
• Expands gradually over a period of days reaching up to 12 inches or more (30 cm) across
• May feel warm to the touch but is rarely itchy or painful
• Sometimes clears as it enlarges, resulting in a target or “bull’s-eye” appearance
• May appear on any area of the body

He had some symptoms, but not all.  He thought he had acquired the flu bug.  But yes, earlier detection and prevention helps out greatly.

My grandfather swore by using dog shampoo periodically to eliminate any unseen ticks. I may just do that after every hike. Last hike I pulled three ticks from my body in a day and my wife found one on my back. All were Lone Star ticks.

I guess it’s also time to renew the Permethrin on my bivy and hiking clothes.

that would be a lot harder to see a 2 mm nymph

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-lyme-wars-meet-the-players_us_58de57b2e4b04ba4a5e252db

There are two “schools”

CDC – Lyme disease is 100% cured with antibiotics

chronic – in some people, disease persists.  Long term antibiotic treatment is required.  CDC says this is just placebo effect and proponents are just snake oil salesmen.  Using antibiotics unnecessarily causes bacteria to be resistant.

There is some scientific evidence supporting the chronic proponents.  Bacteria can form a colony with a protective bio-film that protects them from antibiotic.

I can see why the CDC wants to limit antibiotic use to limit bacteria becoming resistant.  I’m sure there are scamsters out there that tell people they have Lyme disease just to make money.

Maybe a lesson is to be aware of Lyme disease symptoms and get treated immediately.

“I’m sure there are scamsters out there that tell people they have Lyme disease just to make money.”

Doctors who administer the test? Or who are the scammers you are talking about?